the bottle which contained his gold, and are
informed that he was afterwards sought out,
and received due restoration of his treasure
from its finder. Some settlements are much
more lawless than the rest, and we have read,
perhaps, more ill of Ballarat than any other ;
yet it is of Ballarat that we receive the
following sketch from a private correspondent.

The writer, with a party of four young
friends, quitted a farm near Geelong, in
October last year, to experiment as a digger
at Ballarat until the harvest. One man at a
gold field can do little for himself; a party of
about four is requisite to make a profitable
division of the labour. " With this party," our
correspondent says, "I started on Thursday,
October the second, for the Gold City of
Ballarat. We took with us all requisite tools;
a large tarpaulin to make into a tent; and
provisions to last us for two months. All
this was stowed away in our own dray; and
our man Tom accompanied it.

"This mode of travelling—the universal
mode in Australia—is very pleasant in fine
weather. We used to be up at daybreak, and
start as soon as we had breakfasted. We
would go on leisurely —for bullocks won't be
hurried— and get through a stage of from
fifteen to twenty miles, according to the state
of the roads, allowing an interval of one hour
for dinner. Then we would stop for the night
at some convenient camping-ground, where
there was a good supply of grass, wood, and
water. There, our first proceedings were to
make a big fire, and a great kettle of tea— a
kettle, mind; then we rigged out a temporary
tent, spread our beds on the ground, and went
to sleep as comfortably as if we were at a
first-rate hotel.

"On Monday night — having left the farm
on the previous Thursday — we camped about
two miles from the diggings; and making a
very early start, we got in sight of them a
little after sunrise.

"It certainly was the most extraordinary
sight I ever beheld. Imagine a valley, varying
in width from one hundred to five hundred
yards, enclosed on either side by high ranges of
hills, thickly timbered. Through the middle of
this valley there winds a rapid little stream, or
' creek,' as it is termed here. On the banks
of the creek, and among the trees of the
surrounding ranges, were clustered tents,
bark-huts formed after the native fashion
with boughs of trees, and every kind of
temporary habitation which could be put up in
the course of an hour or two.

"Some idea may be formed of the number
of tents and other habitations, when I say
that there were then at least five thousand
men at work within a space of about half-a-
mile up the creek. All these had collected
together in a few weeks; for it was only in
the latter end of August that gold was first
found in this out-of-the-way forest valley—
now the site of the 'City of Ballarat,' as it
was nicknamed by the diggers.

"We chose a place for our tent on a rather
retired spot, not far from the creek; in a
couple of hours our ' house ' was put up, the
stores stowed away inside it, and Tom and his
team were off on the home journey to Geelong.
Leaving the others to 'set our house in
order,' get in a stock of firewood, bake a
damper, and perform various other odd jobs
attendant upon taking up one's residence in
the Bush—Fred. and I set out to reconnoitre
the scene of our future operations.

"The place where there was the richest
deposit of gold was on the face of a hill, which
sloped gradually down from the edges on the
right-hand (or east) side of the creek, going
towards the source. I mention these
particulars, because it is worthy of note that
almost all the principal diggings have been
discovered in places similarly situated. The
whole of the hill was what geologists call an
' alluvial deposit:' consisting of various strata
of sand, gravel, large quartz boulders, and
white clay, in the order I have named them.
It is in this white clay, immediately beneath
the quartz, that the gold is found. In one
part of the hill, where the discovery was
first made, this layer of quartz was visible
at the surface, or ' cropped out:' in other
parts it is to be met with at various depths,
of from five to thirty feet.

"When first these diggings were discovered,
there were, as might be expected, continual
disputes as to how much ground each man
should have for his operations. One party
applied to the Government, which
immediately appointed a Commissioner and a whole
staff of subordinates, to maintain order and
enforce certain regulations, made ostensibly
for the benefit of the diggers. Of these
regulations the two principal ones were, that
each person must pay thirty shillings per
month for a license to ' dig, search for, and
remove gold' (I enclose you my license as a
curiosity); and that no person could claim
more than eight feet square of ground to work
at, at one time. In consequence of this last
regulation, the workings were concentrated
in a small part of the hill, where the gold was
chiefly to be found. This spot was perfectly
riddled with holes, of from eight to sixteen
feet square, separated by narrow pathways,
which formed the means of communication
between each hole and the creek. A walk
about this honeycomb of holes was most
amusing. The whole place swarmed with
men; some at work in the pits; others
carrying down the auriferous earth to be
washed in the creek — in wheel-barrows,
hand-barrows, sacks, and tin dishes on their heads.
In some of the holes I even saw men digging
out bits of gold from between the stones with
a table-knife.

"Busy as this scene was, I think the scene
at the creek was busier. Both banks, for half-
a-mile, were lined with men, hard at work
washing the earth in cradles. Each cradle
employs three men; and all the cradles are